What’s New in WordPress 4.3

WordPress 4.3 was released just a few minutes ago. This is the second major WordPress release this year. It has some great new features and fixes many issues. In this article, we will show you what’s new in WordPress 4.3 and which features you should try after updating your sites.

This is a major release and unless you are on a managed WordPress hosting, you will have to manually initiate the update.

Important: Don’t forget to create a complete WordPress backup before starting the update.

Menus in Customizer

Widgets were added to customizer in WordPress 3.9, and it was logical to expect the same for menus. Now with WordPress 4.3, you will be able to edit, create, and manage menus from the customizer. Simply go to Appearance » Customize and then click on the Menus tab.

The old way of adding navigation menus in WordPress will still be there. However the hope is with menus in the customizer customizer, the process of editing menus will become faster and simpler for new WordPress users.

New Site Icon Feature

WordPress did not have a feature to add site icon or favicon. Users had to manually upload their favicon or use plugins to add them. With WordPress 4.3, you can add your site icon from WordPress admin area.

Stronger Passwords by Default

Many security conscious users wanted WordPress to automatically suggest strong passwords for new users. WordPress 4.3 will now suggest stronger passwords by default.

When a user requests a password reset, they will see a stronger password already suggested in the password reset field.

While adding a new user, WordPress will send them a link to setup a password instead of sending them passwords in plain text.

The main goal of this overhaul is to educate users and improve password security in WordPress. The most common excuse for not using stronger passwords is that they are difficult to remember. But there are better ways to manage passwords for WordPress than just remembering them.

Editor Enhancements

The post editing area is where most WordPress users spend their time. This is where you create content, and WordPress makes it super easy to do that with its simple and beautiful visual editor. However, pressing the button means using the mouse or touchpad which breaks the pace of writing.

WordPress 4.3 comes with inline text shortcuts that automatically format text as you type. You don’t even need to touch editor buttons or reload the page. You will see your changes applied instantly in the editor.

Using * or – will start an unordered list.

Using 1. will start an ordered list.

Using # will transform into h1. ## for h2, ### for h3 and so on.

Using > will transform into blockquote.

You can see the complete list of shortcuts by clicking on the help icon in the visual editor.

Comments Off for Pages in WordPress

Pages in WordPress are supposed to be static non-chronological content. See our guide on the difference between WordPress posts vs pages. This means that in most usage scenarios you don’t need to turn on comments for pages. However, WordPress have had comments enabled for pages by default. Users had to manually turn off comments for their pages in WordPress.

WordPress 4.3 fixes this issue and after updating to 4.3, any new page you create will have comments disabled by default.

Improved List Views

There are many improvements for the admin area on mobile devices. The goal of this improvements is to provide a better and consistent user experience on smaller screens.

The list views for WordPress posts, comments, and media are improved to look better on mobile devices. You can find extra information for each item in the tables by clicking on the arrow next to them.

Improved Press This Tool

Work continued on the revamped Press This tool. In WordPress 4.3, the Press This tool now has a text editor as well as visual. Many advance WordPress users find text editor to be more useful for their needs than visual editor. This change will allow them to easily switch.